


The Twins of Illusions — Book 1:  Protect the King

by Dolphy_Blue_Drake



Series: The Twins of Illusion [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Duel Monsters, Duelling, Gen, Insanity, No Romance, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 16:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7852633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dolphy_Blue_Drake/pseuds/Dolphy_Blue_Drake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After passing hands from company to company for centuries, Duel Monsters is back where it belongs:  in the hands of the Pegasus family and the new Industrial Illusions.<br/>The world is even at peace.  Dueling has brought unity and joy to all of humanity.<br/>But trouble has struck again.  Elizabeth Scarlett Pegasus forced her father into early retirement so she could take control, then turned insane when the dormant leftover power of the Millennium Eye in her bloodline suddenly manifested itself in her at full power.<br/>Now it's up to her twin brother, Yurick Connor Pegasus, to chase his sister and her gang of hired thugs through time to stop them from altering history.<br/>In a time not that long after the dawn of Duel Monsters, Yurick must face his sister and her goons to save his sister from herself, and history from her insane plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How It All Began:  From Past To Present

**Author's Note:**

> This work is currently a very rough draft. I'm good at catching errors such as spelling and grammar, but when it comes to certain other things, I have problems.  
> I have a tendency to either overexplain or underexplain things and often my writing is stiff as a board.  
> At the current time, I'm looking for a coauthor, so if you like the general premise and plot of what I have so far and are interested in helping me make this fanfic a more entertaining and easier read, please let me know.  
> I'm also working on descriptions for the cards that only appear in this fic, and I will link each card once it is complete. Character bios are also available for some characters, and I plan on linking those, as well.  
> Finally, this is going to be the first of a six-part series, so if you enjoy what I have so far, don't worry. There's plenty more to come.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duel Monsters is finally back in the hands of the Pegasus family, but all is not well. Something is about to happen that could change the world forever, or even destroy it.

In the distant future, the world was entirely at peace.  Through dueling, humanity had grown extremely close, with most conflict being nothing more than friendly competition.  And at the heart of it all, a certain family had joy all their own that grew from the joy of others.

This was the world-famous Pegasus family, who had restored Industrial Illusions and bought back the rights to Duel Monsters from the corporation that had bought the rights before them.  With the descendants of the founder of the original Industrial Illusions at the helm of the most unifying pastime in the world, the game had taken the world into a golden age.

Before Cecelia Pegasus’ untimely death, she had given birth to the only heir to the Pegasus name:  Brandon Roland Pegasus.  Brandon’s existence was a well-kept secret until his father retired and he took over for his father.  His son in turn took the reigns of Industrial Illusions when it was his time, and so it continued like that for quite some time.

But one day, another company absorbed Industrial Illusions in a hostile takeover, releasing all employees, and even forcing the President and CEO to leave his family’s beloved game in the buyer’s hands.

The company that took over introduced Synchro Summoning and Turbo Dueling to the dueling scene, introducing the first of many changes to the classic beloved game.

But they in turn were eventually bought out, and Duel Monsters passed hands again.  The new owners of the game did away with Turbo Dueling, ceased printing new Synchro and Tuner monsters, and introduced their new Xyz monsters, changing the game again.

But they couldn’t keep their hands on Duel Monsters, either.  Yet another hostile takeover moved Duel Monsters to a new owner.  This owner resumed focus on the nearly-forgotten Synchros, Rituals and Fusions, while still allowing production of more Xyz monsters.  They didn’t revive Turbo Dueling, but they introduced a new twist on dueling all their own:  Action Duels, taking advantage of the new hard light technology.

This owner allowed anyone with the money and skills to design their own cards for the game, letting the masses take control of Duel Monsters.  This resulted in Pendulum Monsters, which came out of nowhere, being immediately accepted into the dueling scene.

But this new system threatened to destabilize the game entirely.  It would only be a matter of time before someone decided to make some nigh-unstoppable card and ruin the game for everyone.  This couldn’t be allowed to happen, so the Pegasus family rose from the ashes like a flock of phoenixes, ceasing their self-imposed exile to Duelist Kingdom to buy the rights to their ancestor’s game and make everything right again.  Cards now had to be approved by the new Industrial Illusions’ Duel Monsters Rules Board, and the owner of the company was always a direct descendant of Maximillion J. Pegasus, determined not by age, but by who inherited the psychic powers added to the bloodline from one of their ancestors, who had married a psychic duelist after the fall of the Arcadia Movement.

The Pegasus family continued Action Duels, but also brought Turbo Dueling into the current era, allowing for amazing televised dueling tournaments of all kinds.

Duelist Kingdom was remodelled into the headquarters for the new Industrial Illusions, with facilities all over the island, as well as an impressive remodel of Chateau Pegasus, tripling the castle’s size, as well as turning the dungeons and other unnecessary facilities into useful facilities, such as R&D.

In the new era with the world at peace, the President and CEO of Industrial Illusions was Darius Zaid Pegasus, the most important businessman in the world.  His wife, Julie Chana Pegasus, had shared in his joy for many years, serving as his chief advisor when she wasn’t busy with their twin children:  Elizabeth Scarlett and Yurick Connor.  The family enjoyed life on their island paradise, and once “Lizzie's” psychic powers manifested, things seemed even better.  The heir to the company had been decided, and Lizzie and “Ricky” were being trained in how to run a business, for Lizzie had already selected Ricky as her future Vice President and head of the Rules Board.

At times, Darius seemed a bit tense, exerting some of the signs of the temporary insanity that had afflicted their distant ancestor until he had lost to the legendary King of Games, but around his family, Darius never showed any such problems, though he was extremely good at guessing the thoughts of others at times, even his family’s.  He loved to play with the children after work, and joined them in watching Saturday morning cartoons, laughing alongside them.

He even played a Toon deck on the rare occasion that he was actually able to duel, and Lizzie shared in his affection for Toons, often begging him to create more support for the original Archetype.

So Darius gladly gave in to his daughter’s requests, adding Fusion, Tuner, Synchro, Xyz and Pendulum monsters to the set, even adding cards to make them useable in Action and Turbo Duels with Action Field – Toon Kingdom and a function to place a Speed Field on top of Speed World 3 for Turbo Duels, as well as Toon Action Spells and Toon Speed Spells.  Soon Toons were making their way into televised tournaments, and Lizzie squealed in delight whenever a duelist on TV turned the duel on its head by pulling out those zany versions of their more “boring” counterparts.

Ricky, on the other hand was more of a fan of the oft-overlooked Gemini monsters, but was disappointed in how they just couldn’t cut it.  But just like his sister, he begged his father for more Gemini monsters and Gemini support, and dear old Dad came through once again, with new Gemini monsters, more spells and traps that helped out Geminis, a Speed Field version of the Gemini Field Spell, Action Field – Spark Field, Speed Spell variants of the Gemini spells, Action Spells for Geminis, new powerful Extra Deck Gemini support, Pendulum Geminis, and he even raised the Extra Deck limit to 30 cards, since Gemini decks often had to rely on a larger support arsenal than other decks to be viable.

With both heirs to the company satisfied with the new additions for their favorite kinds of cards, now Ricky started cheering extra loud whenever a Gemini duelist suddenly entered the scene in the televised tournaments, rooting for the user of the underrated cards.

It didn’t happen often, but he and his sister would get into heated arguments when Toons faced off against Geminis, both claiming their preferred kind of monster was superior, even calling it a fluke when the duelist they were cheering for lost.  But the raging fan rivalry would only last til the end of the duel, and then it was back to watching the tournament on TV.

But things couldn’t stay that way forever.  After all, someday, it would be the two of them running Industrial Illusions together as sister and brother, continuing the work of the Pegasus family by bringing joy to people of all ages.

One day, only a few weeks after the Pegasus twins had turned eighteen, things began to change rapidly.  Lizzie started to exhibit the same oddities as her father, growing extremely tense at times, being very good at guessing the thoughts of others a lot of the time, even growing envious of her father, sometimes mumbling about how things “could’ve been different”.

Then, out of nowhere, a hostile takeover was staged by Lizzie herself, too impatient to wait for her father to retire.  She took her father completely by surprize, forcing him into an early retirement in a matter of hours.  She kept her word and appointed Ricky to be the VP and the head of the Duel Monsters Rules Board, but she rarely interacted with her brother about anything besides business.

Ricky accepted the positions but only after promising their father that he’d do his best to keep an eye on her.  With his parents’ best wishes, Yurick Connor Pegasus took the positions offered to him by his sister, and Elizabeth Scarlett Pegasus assumed full command of Industrial Illusions.

Time passed, and besides Lizzie's odd quirks and distancing herself from her family, things appeared fine.  Duel Monsters continued to remain the world’s favorite pastime, uniting the world with friendship, with the sad exception of the family responsible for keeping the game afloat.

Then, things got worse when, without warning, Lizzie snapped, erupting into fits of laughter, spending company funds on researching technology unrelated to dueling, and hiring a large group of duelists who seemed to be receiving training to be ruthless, even going over the heads of the Rules Board and altering the banlist herself, making every currently banned card legal.  She publicly claimed it was to make the game “more exciting”, and that she was trying to return the game to “the way Maximillion Pegasus had intended:  every card useable, even if you’re only allowed one copy.  That way, every duelist can have a copy of their favorite card in their deck.”

Ricky tried to talk to Lizzie, but she had gone completely insane, making it impossible for Ricky to get through to her.  She seemed to know his every thought before he could speak them, and yet he _still_ couldn’t get her to understand.  Lashing out in confusion, Lizzie pulled out a copy of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Toon Dragon and used her inherited psychic powers to sicc it on her brother, the Neutron Blast Attack barely missing Ricky and obliterating the window behind him.  Sanity returned to her eyes when she saw what she’d almost done to her brother.

“Yurick!” she gasped, covering her mouth with shaking hands.  “What have I done?  I almost—I’m sorry—I-I-I—!”  Suddenly, the words caught in her throat and she gave an insane giggle as her left eye changed color from red to amber with an unnatural gleam.  She immediately fled to the R&D department, seeming to disappear into thin air along with her thuggish duelists before Ricky arrived.

All Ricky found was a strange device that looked like it could be worn on the wrist and a modified retro all-physical gauntlet-like Duel Disk made to look like a bionic lower arm and hand, which he immediately recognized as his own personal Duel Disk, which had gone missing after he assumed the VP position and was based on his favorite monster:  Cyber Splicer

His Duel Disk had the usual slots for a modern Duel Disk:  five Monster Zones, five Spell/Trap Zones, two Pendulum Zones, a Field Zone, a Deck Slot, a Graveyard Slot, an Extra Deck Slot, and finally, a Banish Zone Slot.  The Card Zones resembled a flexible, jagged blade when not folded up against his arm, just like he remembered.  However, an accompanying manual described various upgrades including hijacking features so that if a duelist with a different banlist registered in their Duel Disk was encountered, the other Duel Disk wouldn’t cancel based on differing banlists causing “incompatibility”.  It would also hack the other Duel Disk’s internal computer to alter its list of accepted cards and rules to include rules and cards that didn’t exist yet, whatever that meant.

As for the wrist device, it had a panel on it displaying a date and time from a very long time ago, not long after the dawn of Duel Monsters, as well as the coordinates for Duelist Kingdom.  There were buttons for adjusting the displayed time and the latitude and longitude, as well as a button that read “Lock On”, another that read “Jump”, and another that said “Return”.  The manual next to it said it was a prototype time traveling device created by reverse engineering a piece of old technology for traveling between dimensions and applying some tweaks.  It went on to describe plans to create Duel Runners with both the hacking and time-hopping abilities built in, but no such vehicles were present in the room.

After putting on his Duel Disk and the time travel device, Ricky immediately left the room, fearing the worst, and ran to his parents’ suite in the castle, busting into the room and taking both by surprise.

“Yurick, what—?” his father exclaimed, unable to finish his sentence.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?  You look white as a sheet!” his mother gasped.

“Mom, Dad, it’s Elizabeth,” Ricky said, panting for breath.  “She completely snapped!  She tried to sicc a Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon on me!  She almost _killed_ me!  And she made time travel devices like this one!”  He showed his parents the device, then continued.  “The time and date is set to not long after Maximillion Pegasus created Duel Monsters, and the location is this very same island!  Whatever she’s up to, it’s not good.”

“What are you going to do, son?” Darius asked, completely at a loss for words.

“Well, with her gone, I’m technically in charge of Industrial Illusions now,” Ricky began.  “So I’m handing control of the company back to you and Mom while I go after her.  The R&D lab had the blueprints for a Duel Runner variant for the device, complete with the hacking powers they added to my Duel Disk—they probably used it as a prototype for testing.  If possible, I’d like you to set the R&D guys to work upgrading my Duel Runner with the same tech.  She’ll likely escape to another time if I can stop her since she and her goons will have vehicles while I’ll be stuck on foot.  If I can have my Runner ready before I chase her to her second destination, that would be ideal.”

“I’ll do that, son,” Darius replied before he and Julie drew their son into an embrace.  “Good luck.  Please stop your sister from whatever she’s planning, and if you can, help her to regain her sanity.”

“Will do, Dad,” Ricky said with a nod as his parents broke the embrace.  “Whatever she has planned, I’ll put a stop to it, don’t you worry.”

“Ricky?” his mother said before he could hit the “Jump” button.  “Be safe.  You may encounter Maximillion back when he had the Millennium Eye.  He wasn’t perfectly sane at that time in his life.  Stay on guard if you encounter him.”

“I will Mom,” Ricky replied with a reassuring smile.  “Well, here goes.”

After a deep breath, Ricky pressed the “Jump” button, and vanished in a flash of light.


	2. Ancestry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yurick has chased his sister and her gang back in time to before the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. Her goal seems to be Chateau Pegasus, so whatever she has planned can't be good. Maximillion Pegasus could be in grave danger!

When the light faded, Yurick found himself at the docks of Duelist Kingdom, Chateau Pegasus visible in the distance.  The castle was much smaller than it was in Yurick’s time, but it still was quite grand.

Up the path from the docks, Elizabeth and her thugs were already riding their Duel Runners towards the castle.  Though Yurick wouldn’t be able to catch them on foot, he ran after them anyway, hoping to be able to stop them after they came to a halt.

But as Yurick continued running, it became increasingly apparent that he wouldn’t be able to catch up before they entered the castle.  If that was even their intention.  Given his sister’s current state of insanity, it was impossible to know what she was planning without her telling him.

Yurick eventually arrived at the bottom of the long staircase to the castle, but Elizabeth and her goons had already gotten inside.  Maximillion's guards were strewn all over the ground, some injured, some unconscious, some both.

“Hey!  You!” a voice snapped, drawing Yurick’s attention to a fallen guard who was still conscious.  “This is Master Pegasus’ private island!  Leave, now!”

“I’m chasing those goons who took all of you out!” Yurick shouted up at the guard as he started to climb the stairs.  “Their leader is my sister, and I’m going to get her mental help!”

“Well, your sister summoned a monster right out of a Duel Monsters card and sicced it on us!” the guard said as he fumbled with his gun.  “Unless you can deal with that, go home, now!”

“I know full well what she’s capable of!” Yurick snapped as he reached the guard’s position.  “Maximillion J. Pegasus will be in big trouble if she makes it to him!”  He kicked the guard’s gun away before the man could shoot and shook his head.  “She’s got the same powers he has, and I’m not about to let her ruin everything.  You guards are ill-equipped to handle her kind of power.”

“Fine,” the guard grumbled.  “But don’t say I didn’t warn you if you get beaten up worse than we did.”

“I won’t,” Yurick replied as he continued up the stairs.  “But I didn’t need you to warn me.  Thanks anyway, though."

The gate to the castle was wide-open, so Yurick just walked right in.  More guards were lying unconscious inside the building, but Yurick didn’t have time to check to see if any of them were still conscious, so he broke into a run, panting for breath when he reached the railing overlooking the internal Duel Arena.

Elizabeth was already standing at the challenger’s side of the Arena while her thugs were dragging a struggling Maximillion to the side of the Arena opposite Elizabeth, his chair already waiting for him.

“Let me go!” Maximillion protested, “Don’t you know who I am?”

“Of _course_ I know who you are,” Elizabeth replied with a wicked grin.  “You’re _the_ Maximillion J. Pegasus!  The creator of Duel Monsters and the founder of Industrial Illusions!”

“Who are you, anyway?” Maximillion demanded as Elizabeth’s thugs forced him to sit in his chair and backed up to the hallway behind them, blocking off his only path to escape.  “What do you want with me?”

“Me?” Elizabeth sneered as she plugged her Duel Disk shaped like a Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon wing into the Arena.  “I’m Elizabeth S. Pegasus, President and CEO of Industrial Illusions, owner of the rights to Duel Monsters, the leader of Koshin, and your descendant.”

“What?” Maximillion cried out in absolute shock.  “You’re from the future?”

“Why yes, my dear ancestor,” Elizabeth giggled.  “I come from a future with many more rules and mechanics in the Duel Monsters card game, and where it has been about a century since the Pegasus family regained ownership of the Duel Monsters card game.”

“So, the game gets taken from my family sometime in the future,” Maximillion huffed.  “So what?  You said yourself that my descendants eventually regain ownership of the game.  You’re even in charge of Industrial Illusions in the time you’re from!  What do you need me for?”

Elizabeth’s amber eye gleamed unnaturally again as her tone turned cold and serious.  “I need the Millennium Eye, dear progenitor.  I have its powers myself, but possessing the actual Millennium Item would at least double my power.  Not only that, but I plan on making changes to history that will keep the Pegasus family from ever losing ownership of Duel Monsters.  And for those reasons, I must duel you.”

“And why would I duel you?” Maxamillion snapped.  “You forced your way in here, I have nothing to gain from dueling you, and I’m still making preparations for the Duelist Kingdom tournament!”

“Well, I could always have my fellow members of Koshin use brute force,” Elizabeth replied as casually as if she were simply discussing the weather, “Or I could threaten you with monsters made real by my powers, but I’d rather not do that.”  Her face contorted into a scowl as she continued.  “After all, though Brandon R. Pegasus was born before this, if we accidentally killed you, he’d be orphaned at such an early age, and Industrial Illusions would most likely be bought out soon after.”  Her scowl vanished, being replaced by a wide, toothy grin.  “Instead, I have a wager for you:  I’ll bet my soul against the Millennium Eye if you accept my challenge.  I have both psychic powers and the power of a Millennium Item in my very being.  I’m sure you could use my soul by itself to resurrect Cecelia.  How about it?”

The thought of Lizzie betting her soul was too much for Yurick, so he broke his silence and shouted, “Lizzie!  Stop!  Don’t do this!  If you lose, I’ll lose you forever!  And if you win, you could drastically change history for the worse!”

“Oh, Ricky!” Elizabeth squealed happily as all eyes fell on her brother.  “You came to help your sister?  I was _hoping_ you’d come around!  That’s why I left the prototype Time Jumper in the lab!  I’m sorry we couldn’t install the tech in your Runner, but we just didn’t have the time!”

“I’m here to help you, but not in advancing your insane plans,” Yurick replied gently.  “I’m here to take you back home so we can get you help.  I’m going to save you from yourself, Lizzie.”

“I’m not crazy, Ricky!” Elizabeth protested.  “The loss of our family’s beloved game should’ve never happened!  I’m going to prevent that, so if you’re not going to assist me, then you’re an enemy!  Get him!”

Within seconds, Yurick was surrounded by members of his sister’s gang.  He was now stuck between them and the railing, with nowhere to go.

“Let him watch his sister defeat our legendary ancestor,” Elizabeth ordered.  “After all, maybe he’ll come around after I beat Maximillion in a duel.”

“Lizzie!  Let him go!  Duel me instead!” Yurick cried out before getting kneed in the stomach by one of his sister’s thugs.

“Shut up,” the woman growled.  “You may be the boss’ brother, but she only said to let you watch.  She never said to let you talk.”

Yurick meekly nodded and leaned over the railing, hoping and praying for a miracle.

“Fine, I accept your terms,” Maximillion sighed.  “I do sense incredible power within you through my Millennium Eye.  Perhaps it could be enough to resurrect Cecelia with just one soul.”

“Perfect!” Elizabeth cheered.  “Now, let’s get this show on the road!”

“Let’s duel!” both duelists said at the same time as the Life Point totals for both of them were set to 8,000.

**Duel Start!**

**Elizabeth S. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**

| 

**Turn 1**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
 “So we don’t have to waste time with me explaining the rules of the future, just use your Millennium Eye to read my mind so I don’t have to tell you,” Elizabeth suggested with a simple wave of her hand.  “It’s faster that way.”

 “Very well,” Maximillion replied.  In an instant, his Millennium Item shone the same way Elizabeth’s amber eye did on occasion, and after a couple seconds, the gleam faded, and the creator of Duel Monsters nodded.

 “Well, those are some interesting rules, but you’re still in my world now,” Maximillion said confidently.  “Your thoughts are a mess, but you won’t get the jump on me.  I also peeked at the entire contents of your deck and your ‘Extra Deck’, as you future people call it.  My, how my precious Toons have grown!  This’ll be fun!  Ladies first, Lizzie-Girl!”

 “Oh, you’ll regret giving me the first turn,” Elizabeth giggled as both players drew until they had five cards.  “Besides, when dueling me, you’re not so special.  I can read your mind, too.”  Her amber eye sparkled for a second, and she nodded.  “Ah, the classics.  Why would I expect anything different?  We’ll see whose world we’re in soon enough, Maxie!

 “I start the duel with Toon Table of Contents!” Elizabeth giggled.  “Everyone here already knows what it does, so I’ll just search my deck without explaining!”  After Elizabeth pushed a button on her Duel Disk, the Wrist Dealer shuffled her deck and pushed the card she was looking for halfway out of the deck.  She grabbed the card and slipped it out of the deck before adding it to her hand.

 “Of course, since we can both read each other’s minds, you already know what I picked,” Elizabeth said sweetly.  “So prepare to enter a world of endless possibility and absolute mayhem!  But why stop there?  We’re going to the center of it all!  Welcome… to the Toon Kingdom!  The zaniest place in Toon World”

 Elizabeth slid the card for Toon Kingdom into the Field slot on her Disk, and the whole arena turned into a massive pop-up book with a cartoony castle rising from the center.

 Elizabeth banished the top three cards of her deck and shrugged.  “Eh, I may not even need those cards.  But if I do, you very well know who can get them back for me, _don’t you,_ Maxie?”

 “So you beat me to Toon World,” Maximillion scoffed.  “It doesn’t matter if you can get out your Toons first, for I’ll soon be summoning my own!”

 “Whatever you say, Maxie,” Elizabeth giggled.  “Now, time to meet the starting cast of today’s show!  I Normal Summon Toon Masked Sorcerer, who I immediately tribute to Special Summon Toon Summoned Skull!”

 Toon Masked Sorcerer barely appeared before vanishing to be replaced by Toon Summoned Skull, who flexed his muscles and cackled like a maniac.

 “Well, that’s my turn,” Elizabeth said with an exaggerated sigh.  “Go ahead, Maxie.”

 “Come now, Lizzie-Girl!” Maximillion chortled as he drew a card to start his turn.  “Are you really that depressed over not being able to attack?  Even if you _could_ attack first turn, there’s still the fact that Toon Summoned Skull can’t attack the turn he’s summoned!”

 Steam rose from Toon Summoned Skull’s ears, and the Toon Monster started shaking his fist at Maximillion.

 “Don’t let him get to you, sweetie,” Elizabeth said soothingly.  “You’ll get to show him how tough you are soon enough.”

 The monster calmed down, and Maximillion resumed his turn.

 “Now, I may not have your fancy Kingdom, but I still have a World all my own!” the Duel Monsters creator announced cheerfully.  “And here it is!  At the mere cost of one thousand Life Points, I activate Toon World so _I_ can join the fun!”

 The iconic Toon World book appeared on Maximillion’s side of the field, then opened to reveal its own pop-up interior.

 “Now, let the fun begin!” Maximillion exclaimed before placing another card on the field.  “I discard one card for Cost Down!  And you know what _that_ means, Lizzie-Girl!  I’ll follow up by Summoning Dark Rabbit and tributing him immediately to Special Summon Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon!  Sorry to burst your bubble, Lizzie-Girl, but I Summoned him first!  He can’t attack this turn, but I think I’ll set some facedowns, just in case.  You can read my mind just as well as I can read yours, so there’s no point in bluffing.  You know what they are.”  He set two cards facedown, then said, “You’re up, Lizzie-Girl!”

 Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon stuck his tongue out at Elizabeth and blew a raspberry.

**Elizabeth S. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**

| 

**Turn 3**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
 “This duel is going to be over a lot faster than you think, Maxie,” Elizabeth chuckled with a shake of her head as she drew to begin her turn.  “Oh good!  This’ll help!”

 “It may help you, but you still won’t know what you’ll get until you play it,” Maximillion said with a shake of his head.  “You’re going to have to rely on luck, Lizzie-Girl.”

 

“Do I care?” Elizabeth snickered.  “You can read my mind, so you know full well that I don’t care if this is leaving it up to chance!   First, I set one card face-down, then I activate Pot of Greed!  Everyone and their dog knows what it does, so let’s just cut to the chase!”

Elizabeth drew two cards after activating the Spell and squealed in delight at what she saw.

“Yes!  Yes!   _Yes!”_ she cheered.   _“Perfect!_  I discard a card from my hand to activate The Melody of Awakening Dragon!  You _know_ what I’m moving from my deck to my hand, of course, Maxie!”

“No!  Not now!” Maximillion exclaimed.  “I’m not prepared for it!”

“That’s the point, Maxie!” Elizabeth cackled as her Wrist Dealer shuffled her deck and slid out two cards, which she added to her hand.  “I add two Blue-Eyes Toon Dragons to my hand to join the one already there, followed by Toon Fusion!  Meet my Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon!”

The three-headed Toon Fusion Monster appeared on the field, its heads chattering excitedly before fixing their gaze on Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon, who gulped, looking over his shoulder at Maximillion with a pleading look in its eyes.

“Don’t worry, Daddy’ll think of something!” Maximillion told his monster, trying to calm down the Toon while he was visibly shaking, himself.

“Lucky for you, my adorable Toon can’t attack the turn he’s summoned,” Elizabeth said with an obviously fake sigh.  “And my Toon Summoned Skull isn’t strong enough to take on your Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon, so I’ll switch him to defense position for now.  Your turn, Maxie.”

With a shaking hand, Maximillion drew the next card from his deck and grinned.  “Looks like fate has different plans, Lizzie-Girl!  I activate my own Pot of Greed!  And after I draw my two cards, I’ll have a better chance!”

The ancestral Pegasus drew two cards from his deck, then grinned.  “Perfect!  Since your hacking system only makes _you_ have to play with the ‘erratas’ from your time period, I can use my Card of Sanctity just the way it is now!  I activate it so we both draw until we have six cards in our hands!  Just what I needed, for my hand was practically out of cards!”

After both players drew until they had six cards in hand, Maximillion continued.  “Now, I activate Mimicat!  And it looks like he has a plan!  He’s taking your Opti-Camouflage Armor out of your Graveyard and setting it to my side of the field!”

A Spell card was ejected from Elizabeth’s Grave, which she then placed on the transfer tile on the Arena board, sending the card to her ancestor.

After setting the card face down in his back row, Maximillion activated a Spell card from his hand.

“I now activate Polymerization!” Maximillion cheered.  “I now fuse Relinquished and Thousand-Eyes Idol for Thousand-Eyes Restrict!”

The secret weapon of Maximillion J. Pegasus appeared on the field, and all other monsters were frozen, unable to move.

“Perfect!”  Maximillion cheered.  “Now, just one last thing to do.  I activate my facedown Imperial Order!  Now all Spells are negated!  Your Kingdom can no longer be Toon World for your Toons, but all mine requires is to be face up on the field!  And now you can’t protect your Toons with your Kingdom’s effect, so I’ll just take your Ultimate Toon, thank you!”

Thousand-Eyes Restrict began pulling Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon towards itself, and though the mighty Toon struggled and clawed at the ground to try to escape, it was in vain, and Thousand Eyes Restrict absorbed the monster.

“Now, I’ll Equip my Thousand-Eyes Restrict with _your_ Opti-Camouflage Armor!” Maximillion said smugly as he flipped over the Spell card.  Thousand-Eyes Restrict maintained its shape, but now appeared as a mass of shifting colors.

“Thousand-Eyes Restrict!  Attack Lizzie-Girl directly!” Maximillion commanded.  “Show her the terror she almost used on me!”

A Neutron Blast fired from the Fusion Monster’s gold eye, hitting Elizabeth hard.

“Ahh!” Elizabeth cried out, struggling to get back to her feet.  “I can still do _something!_  I know I can!”

“Well, with your monster unable to protect you, I’d say you’re just about done!” Maximillion sneered as his descendant stood up, panting for breath.  “Of course, since you wagered your soul, you have no choice but to keep going.  Maybe you should’ve wagered something else.  Well, it’s too late now, Lizzie-Girl.  These things have consequences, you know!  Take your turn!  And you’d better pray for a miracle, for this draw will be your last unless you can find a way out!”

**Elizabeth S. Pegasus**

**LP:  3,500**

| 

**Turn 5**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
“I’ve gotta do something fast!” Elizabeth cried out as she started to panic.  “I need that Millennium Eye!”  After drawing her card, Elizabeth gave a sneer of her own.  “I’m still in this, Maxie!  First, I activate my facedown Dust Tornado to destroy your Imperial Order, followed my Mystical Space Typhoon to free the Toon you stole!  Now, I activate Monster Reborn to revive my Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon!”

The Trap was destroyed, as was the monster equipped to Thousand-Eyes Restrict, but Monster Reborn immediately brought back the Toon Fusion from the grave.

“Of course, my beloved Ultimate Toon can’t attack this turn, even if you _didn’t_ control Thousand-Eyes Restrict,” Elizabeth sighed before breaking into a huge grin.  “But with my Kingdom back in full effect, you can’t target him anymore!  Now, I Normal Summon Toon Krebons!”

The Toon Tuner appeared, and Maximillion’s lips curled downward, for he knew what was coming.

“Now, I tune Toon Krebons with Toon Summoned Skull to Synchro Summon Toon Stardust Dragon!” Elizabeth cackled.  “It’s only a matter of time before I find an out to this dilemma, Maxie!”

“So, one of your future mechanics,” Pegasus chuckled with a shake of his head.  “I already know what he does from reading all of your cards earlier, so I know I don’t have to fear him.”

The Toon Synchro started screaming incoherently at Maximillion, but Elizabeth shook her head.  “Not now, sweetums.  Mommy’s got something _big_ planned.”

Toon Stardust Dragon calmed down, but still stuck out his tongue at Maximillion.

“We can’t do anything quite yet, so back to you Maxie!” Elizabeth said with excitement in her voice.  “You know my plan, and I know yours.  Let’s see who can get their plan off first!”

“Indeed we shall, Lizzie-Girl!” Maximillion replied with excitement of his own.  “Let’s see what I draw now!”  After drawing his next card, the Duel Monsters creator let out a hearty laugh.

“My dear Lizzie, it seems that your brother will have to take over for you in the future, for I’m certain I’ve won.  I activate another Card of Sanctity!  You know the drill, so let’s draw!”

Both duelists drew until their hands once again had six cards, and Maximillion laughed triumphantly as Elizabeth scowled.  “It’s over now, Lizzie-Girl!  I tribute Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon for Spell Canceller!”

The infamous Spell-stopping Machine took the Toon Dragon’s place, and Lizzie was once again without the shielding of her Toon Kingdom, leaving her Toons vulnerable to Thousand-Eyes Restrict’s absorbing powers.

“Now, Thousand-Eyes Restrict, take her precious Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon again!” Pegasus commanded.

Just like before, The Toon was powerless in attempting to escape, being absorbed once again by Maximillion’s secret weapon.

“Now, I’ll just tribute my Spell Canceller for _my_ Toon Summoned Skull, and now the Equip Spell I took from you will be in full effect again!”  After the Machine was replaced with the Toon Fiend, Maximillion gave his final command.

“Thousand-Eyes Restrict!  Attack Lizzie-Girl directly!  End this duel!” Maximillion cheered as the Monster responded to his command and fired another Neutron Blast at Elizabeth, impacting her and sending her Life Points plummeting to zero.

**Elizabeth S. Pegasus** **  
****LP:  0**

**LOSE**

| 

**Turn 6**

  


**Loser’s LP Reached 0**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,000**

**WIN**  
  
---|---|---  
  
**Duel End!**

“No!  This can’t be!” Elizabeth screamed, slamming her fists down on the Arena table like a child throwing a tantrum.  “I was supposed to win!  Your deck was outdated compared to mine!  Mine is like yours, but better in every way!  How could I lose to you?  Even your mind reading ability was moot because I could do it, too!  It’s not fair!”

“Well, a deal’s a deal, remember?” Maximillion laughed as his Millennium Eye shone bright.  “You lost, so I get your soul.  It’s time to pay up.”

“No!”  Elizabeth screamed in defiance as her amber eye shone just as brightly, coupled with the strength of her psychic powers.  “I can’t fall here!  I won’t let you take my soul!”

Maximillion gasped as her power resisted his own.  “We had a deal!  I need to see Cecelia again!  Your soul is so strong, I would only need one!”

“Well, I’m canceling the bet!” Elizabeth giggled madly as her powers started to overwhelm her ancestor, also taking the opportunity to teleport her cards that were currently on her ancestor’s side of the Arena back to her with her psychic powers.  “If you want to take a soul so badly, take Ricky’s!  He can’t stop you from taking his soul!  He has no powers!”

“Fine, if I can’t take yours, I’ll just take another!” Maximillion growled.  “Come down here, boy!”

“No way am I dueling you!” Yurick said with a shake of his head.  “I can’t even the playing field!”

“Ta- _ta,_ Ricky!” Elizabeth jeered as she and her goons started to leave.  “If you survive this, maybe we’ll meet again!  But for now, buh- _bye!”_

The members of Koshin were gone within less than a minute, only to be replaced by Maximillion’s guards, who had since recovered.

“Escort our guest down here, please,” Maximillion requested, suddenly sounding like a gracious host.  “Be gentle with him.  Apparently, he’s a relative of mine.”

“You heard Master Pegasus,” the oldest of the group said, “Follow us, and don’t fall behind.  Being gentle just means not hurting you.  We can force you to accompany us without having to hurt you, so you might as well not resist.”

“Fine,” Yurick sighed, falling in step behind them.  “Could I at least have your name?”

“My name is Croquet,” the man replied.  “I’m in charge of all staff and guards here in Chateau Pegasus, and only Master Pegasus himself can overrule my orders.”

“What about his son, Brandon?” Yurick inquired, not exactly sure how old the heir to the Pegasus name was at this point in time.

Croquet stiffened for a second before answering.  “Given that Master Pegasus said you are a relative of his, I will refrain from asking how you know about Young Master Pegasus.  Needless to say, the Young Master is only two years old and is currently only learning to speak.  Once he is old enough, of course, he will have greater power than I, unless an order from him contradicts an order from his father, or his father overrules it.

“But enough about that,” Croquet said, getting back to business.  “We’re here.  Enjoy your interactions with Master Pegasus, young man.”

Maximillion’s Millennium Eye shone for a second, followed by Maximillion’s expression softening.

“So, that’s how it is,” the master of Duelist Kingdom said gently.  “Young Yurick C. Pegasus, Vice President of Industrial Illusions and head of the Duel Monsters Rules Board.  But you don’t want those positions.  Not yet, anyway.  Your sister forced your poor father and mother into early retirement so she could take control, and she turned insane.  You want to stop her and her gang of thugs from doing what they plan on doing.”

Yurick simply nodded.

“Of course, you likely heard what she said about changing history so the Pegasus family never loses the rights to Duel Monsters,” Maximillion continued.  “But since she’s insane, she doesn’t actually know what she’s doing.  Not only would changing history be catastrophic, but her insanity has twisted her logic, so what she thinks would change history to keep Industrial Illusions from being bought out may be something else entirely, something that could make history entirely unravel.”

“Exactly,” Yurick replied.  “I must stop her.  Now that you understand, will you just let me go?”

“No,” Maximillion replied with a shake of his head.  “If you want to save her, you must prove that you can deal with her kind of power.  Power like mine.  How can you defeat an opponent who knows your every thought when you have no special powers to counter in your corner?  Unless you have what it takes, it’d be better for me to take your soul, which is still very strong because of your superhuman levels of willpower and determination.  It may be able to be used to revive Cecelia on its own, or with a couple extra souls.”

Yurick started to reach for the Return button on his Time Jumper, but stopped when Maximillion cut in.

“Yes, I know you could use that to flee back to your era,” Maximillion said simply, “But what good will that do you?  You have no idea where and when your sister fled to, Ricky-Boy.  I could just tell you, but if you’re not good enough to stand up to her, it’d be better for me to take your soul, restore Cecelia, and face her myself at that point in time.  After all, I already found out where and when she fled to, for after I failed to take her soul, I read her mind.”  Maximillion’s expression turned dead serious.  “To address both problems at the same time, I propose a wager:  you win, I give you the information you need.  You lose, I take your soul.  At any point during the duel, you can back out and return to your time period, but that would leave you without any knowledge on how to find her.  It’s your choice.  I already read your mind for the cards you’ll be using, but if you play in the right way, you can make mind reading a moot point.  So, how about it?”

“I guess i don’t have much choice here, do I?” Yurick grumbled.  “Very well.  I accept your terms.”

After plugging his Duel Disk into the Arena, Yurick nodded to Maximillion, who had finished shuffling his deck.  His ancestor nodded as well, and after Yurick’s Wrist Dealer shuffled his deck, they both drew five cards and said, “Let’s Duel!”


	3. Unpredictability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yurick now has to duel his ancestor for information on where in time his sister fled to. But with no special powers of his own, the only thing that can give him even a snowball's chance of winning is his sporadic thinking.

**Duel Start!**

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**

| 

**Turn 1**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
“How about you go first, Ricky-Boy?” Maximillion suggested with a sly grin.

“Eh, why not?” Yurick replied with a shrug as he looked over his hand.  He had a Terraforming, an Evocator Chevalier, a Gemini Blacksmith, a Splicer Armorer, and a Chemical Beast Carbon Crab.

“Nice cards,” Maximillion remarked, eliciting a grunt of annoyance from Yurick.  “I’m sorry, were you formulating a strategy with them?  Go on, I won’t stop you.”

“Actually, since Geminis haven’t hit the dueling scene quite yet in this era, I think I should let you in on something,” Yurick replied cheekily.  “You see, Geminis can do so many different things, that a deck built around them has trouble adapting to a single goal.  So, my deck was built to be extremely flexible, able to shift in any direction as needed.

“So, in short, they’re unpredictable,” Yurick added as he prepared to play a card.  “They’re spontaneous.  Even if you can read my mind, it may not help much.  You may be able to see my cards, but I usually don’t plan very far ahead, preferring to just go with the flow.”

Maximillion gasped after checking with his Millennium Eye and finding that Yurick was right.

“Now, with that established, I’ll activate Terraforming!” Yurick announced as he slid the Spell card into an appropriate Zone.  “Now I’m grabbing Spark Field from my deck!”  The Wrist Dealer shuffled Yurick’s deck before sliding the card he was looking for halfway out of the deck so he could grab it, which he did.  “Now, I follow up by activating the Field Spell, Spark Field!”

Upon the Field Spell’s activation, the entire Arena became a swirling mass of sparking chemicals, constantly bonding and unbonding.

"For those watching, I’ll explain what my card does,” Yurick announced.  “Spark Field grants me an extra Normal Summon once a turn, as long as that extra monster is a Gemini Monster.  It also gives me the ability to Normal Summon a level five or higher Gemini Monster without needing to tribute for it, once per turn.  Finally, once per turn, I can banish a Gemini Monster I control that is treated as an Effect Monster until the End Phase of my opponent’s next turn to destroy one card my opponent controls!”  With the explanation out of the way, Yurick said, “Now, let’s get down to business, shall we?  I first Normal Summon Gemini Blacksmith, then use the effect of Spark Field to Normal Summon an extra Gemini Monster from my hand.  I summon my level 5 Splicer Armorer without having to tribute!  Well, that’s my turn.  Your turn, big shot.”

“Oh, goody,” Maximillion chuckled as he drew a card.  “Now, let’s see what I can do.  I’ll pay one thousand Life Points to activate Toon World, first.”

The Toon World pop up book appeared, immediately opening to reveal its contents, and the creator of Duel Monsters continued his turn.

“Now, I’ll Normal Summon my Red Archery Girl before immediately tributing her to Special Summon my Toon Summoned Skull!” Maximillion declared as he did just that.  “He may be unable to attack this turn, but he’ll show you what he’s got next turn.  Finally, I’ll set a card face-down and end my turn.  Go ahead, Ricky-Boy.”

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  8,000**

| 

**Turn 3**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
Yurick silently drew his card, not even caring that his ancestor had most likely just read his mind.  He had to come up with his next move.  The card he drew was Gemini Spark.

 _That may come in handy some time down the road,_ He thought as he set the card face-down.

“Indeed it might,” Maximillion commented, but Yurick just shrugged and continued to formulate his plans for the current turn.

“First, I’ll Normal Summon Evocator Chevalier!” Yurick announced as he placed the Monster card on his Duel Disk, summoning the Monster to battle.

“And now, it’s time for what makes Geminis so special!”  Yurick stated.  “I can Normal Summon one that’s already on the field to change it from being treated as a Normal Monster to being treated as an Effect Monster, often with amazing effects!  I ‘Gemini Summon’ Gemini Blacksmith, giving him the effect to search my deck once per turn for an Equip Spell card or an equipable Trap card!”

The Gemini Summoned Monster took on a red aura, and Yurick continued his turn.  “I activate Gemini Blacksmith’s effect by paying five hundred Life Points!  And the card I want is Gemini Booster!”  The Wrist Dealer shuffled Yurick’s deck before the desired card slid halfway out of the deck for him to grab.

After taking the card, Yurick continued.  “And now, I’ll set a card face-down, then activate the effect of Spark Field!  I banish Gemini Blacksmith until your End Phase to destroy Toon World!”

“I’m so sorry,” Maximillion chuckled as he revealed his face-down card.  “I activate the Continuous Trap, Imperial Order!  Now the effects of all spells are negated!  I may have to pay seven hundred Life Points during each of my Standby Phases, but that’s a small price to pay to keep your Spark Field from destroying my cards.  Sure, you’ll get your Blacksmith back at the end of my next turn since him returning to you at that point was part of the cost, but you failed to get rid of Toon World!”

“Darn it!” Yurick growled.  “This isn’t how things were supposed to go down!”

“And you call yourself a Pegasus,” Maximillion sighed with a shake of his head.  “You need to lighten up, Ricky-Boy.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Yurick snapped.  “You’re only wagering information.  I’m the one whose soul’s on the line!”

“Well, that may be true,” Maximillion conceded, “But you’re not making this any easier on yourself.  Even with such high stakes, you have to keep calm, or you’ll be prone to make more mistakes.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to end my turn,” Yurick sighed.  “Go ahead, Maximillion.”

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,500**

| 

**Turn 4**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  7,000**  
  
---|---|---  
  
“Let’s see what my deck has in store for me now,” Maximillion said before drawing his next card.  “Oh, lucky me!  This may help you more than me, but I’ll activate Card of Sanctity after destroying Imperial Order by deciding not to pay its cost!  I have two cards in my hand, so I’ll draw four, and since you have one, you’ll draw five.  Consider it a gift.”

Both duelists drew until their hands had six cards, with Yurick’s hand consisting of Chemical Beast Carbon Crab, Chemical Beast Hydron Hawk, Supervise, Phoenix Gearfried, Darkstorm Dragon and Tuned Magician.

“Let’s see,”  Maximillion mused while looking over his own hand.  “I must say, your deck is well-built.  So many options, too.  If one doesn’t work, you can always try another!  But your reserves can only go so deep.  Let’s see how long you can last, shall we?  I activate Scapegoat to summon four Sheep Tokens, and immediately tribute two of them to Special Summon my Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon!”

The Toon Dragon popped out of the floating book and flexed his muscles before making a silly face.

“Now, Toon Summoned Skull!  Attack Ricky-Boy directly!” Maximillion commanded.  The Toon eagerly obeyed and launched bolts of lightning at Yurick, who cried out from the pain.

“Arrrgh!” Yurick exclaimed as the attack connected.  He was twenty-five hundred Life Points weaker, and his body felt weakened, as well.

“That’s all for now!” Maximillion said with a bow.  “Your turn, Ricky-Boy!”

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  5,000**

| 

**Turn 5**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  6,500**  
  
---|---|---  
  
As the creator’s turn ended, Gemini Blacksmith returned to Yurick’s side of the field, but without its Gemini effect.  Yurick drew to begin his turn, adding a copy of Polymerization to his hand.

“I Normal summon Cyber Splicer without tribute through the effect of Spark Field!”  Yurick said as he did just that.  His favorite Monster appeared on the field:  a humanoid figure with a bionic lower right arm and hand with a blade attached to the side of the arm, bionic lower legs and feet with rockets on the soles of the metal feet, a scaly muscular left arm complete with claws, a dragon’s tail, metal wings on his back, a shiny metallic armored lab coat, a muscular upper right arm, and a part-human, part-mechanical head with glowing blue tubes running from the top of the head to the base of the brain.

“So, your favorite Monster, hmm?” Maximillion remarked.  “He’s quite impressive, I’ll give him that.  But with only twenty-five hundred attack points, he won’t be able to save you as is.”

“That’s why I’ll use my second Normal Summon to Gemini Summon him!” Yurick replied.  The Gemini Monster took on a blue aura, and Yurick started to grow excited as he continued. “Cyber Splicer gains _two_ effects when Gemini Summoned!  For the sake of the guards observing this duel, I’ll explain them!

“For his first effect,” Yurick began, “Once per turn, he allows me to discard a card from my hand and send a Monster I control to the Graveyard.  I’m then allowed to declare a number from a range dependent on the type of Monster sent.  If it was a non-Gemini Monster, I can declare a number from one to four.  If it was a Gemini Monster treated as a Normal Monster, the range is between five and eight.  If it was a Gemini Monster treated as an Effect Monster, the range is from nine to twelve.  His level becomes that number, and his attack and defense increase by his new level times one hundred.  Those changes last until my next Standby Phase.

“Now, as for his second effect,” Yurick continued, “Once per turn, he allows me to pay one thousand Life Points to search my deck for a Gemini Monster, or a card with ‘Gemini Monster’ in its text, then add the chosen card to my hand.

“Now, I’m going to activate Supervise on my Evocator Chevalier, granting him his Gemini effect without me having to Gemini summon him, first,” Yurick explained as he activated the Equip Spell, bestowing a red aura on the Gemini Monster.  “Then, I activate my facedown Gemini Booster, which I equip to my Cyber Splicer, raising his attack by seven hundred for a new total of thirty-two hundred!  But I’m still not done!  I’ll activate my facedown Gemini Spark, which will let me destroy one card on the field and draw a card at the cost of tributing one level four Gemini I control.  So I tribute Gemini Blacksmith to destroy Toon World and draw a card!”

“Nooooo!” Maximillion wailed as white bolts of energy flew from the position of where Gemini Blacksmith had been, impaling Toon World, and destroying it along with both of Maximillion’s Toons on the field.

“And now for my card!” Yurick declared as he drew a Splicer Omnismith.  “It’s a good one, but it looks like we’re almost done!  Evocator Chevalier and Cyber Splicer!  Attack Maximillion directly!”

“Oof!” Maximillion grunted as the attacks connected, depleting his Life Points by a whopping fifty-one hundred points.

“It’s almost over,” Yurick declared.  “My turn’s over.  Make your move.”

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  5,000**

| 

**Turn 6**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  400**  
  
---|---|---  
  
“You’re so hard to predict, it’s difficult to think of countermeasures to your actions,” Maximillion sighed as he drew his next card.  “In fact, though I have Life Points left, there’s nothing in my hand to stop you.  No matter what I do, you’ll reduce the few Life Points I have remaining to zero anyway, so I’m giving you the duel.”  Maximillion placed his hand on his deck in a sign of surrender, and all the holograms vanished.

**Yurick C. Pegasus**

**LP:  5,000**

**WIN**

| 

**Turn 6**

  


**Loser Forfeited**

| 

**Maximillion J. Pegasus**

**LP:  400**

**LOSE**  
  
---|---|---  
  
  **Duel End!**

Yurick stared, dumbfounded, as he returned all his cards to his deck.

“I’ve never heard of Maximillion J. Pegasus surrendering to anyone!” he exclaimed with a shake of his head.  “Why’d you give up?”

“Simple, Ricky-Boy,” Maximillion chuckled as the Arena retracted into the ceiling and the bridge reconnected, putting both ancestor and descendant within inches of each other.  “You’ve proven that you’re able to stand up to duelists like your sister and myself.  Your erratic thinking is something that many would call a weakness, but it actually means that you’re as versatile as the cards in your deck, making it a great strength.” Maximillion placed a hand on his descendant’s shoulder as he continued, though the fact that Yurick was taller made it a bit difficult.  “And besides, the more time you spend here, the less time you have to stop your sister and her gang.  They went to a later time period, when a tournament called ‘Battle City’ will take place.  Before you jump back to your time, push that ‘Lock On’ button on your ‘Time Jumper’, and it’ll lock on to the coordinates and time they jumped to, but some time after they arrived, for apparently, the flow of time is fickle.  The amount of time you spend before jumping to that time will be added so that time is accounted for.  Now, run along now.  You’ve got to save both the world and your sister, right?”

Yurick nodded, then pushed the ‘Lock On’ button, which changed the Time-Space coordinates to about a day before Seto Kaiba announced the Battle City Tournament.

“Thanks, Maximillion,” Yurick said with a smile before pushing the ‘Return’ button and disappearing in a flash of light.


	4. Entering the Battleground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yurick has returned to his own era to collect his Duel Runner to have a faster mode of transportation than travelling on foot.
> 
> With his Runner in tow, Yurick travels in time once again, this time to the announcement of the Battle City Tournament. In Battle City, Yurick must make his second attempt to stop his sister and her gang.

When the light faded, Yurick found himself back inside Chateau Pegasus in his own era.  He was in the R&D lab, and his parents were there with a group of technicians working on his Duel Runner, “The Bionic Blur”.  It was a custom model Duel Runner with some parts appearing organic, and others obviously mechanical, giving the appearance of a vehicle form of Cyber Splicer.

“Hey, Mom, hey Dad,” Yurick said as he approached his parents.  “How’s my baby coming along?”

“It’s just about done,” his mother replied as she took him into a hug.  “How did things go in the past?”

“Lizzie escaped after losing to Maximillion,” Yurick sighed as he returned the embrace.  “She tried to duel him for the Millennium Eye, but she lost.  Maximillion dueled me next, but I managed to win.  He surrendered, but only after I’d made it apparent there was no way out for him.”

“Well, did you find out where and when she fled to next?” his father inquired after Yurick and his mother broke the embrace so Yurick could hug his father.

“Battle City,” Yurick replied.  “Apparently, she thinks she can change history to make it where our family never lost the rights to Duel Monsters.  But her methods don’t match what a sane person would expect one to do to change history in that direction.  She calls her gang of thugs ‘Koshin’, a Japanese word meaning ‘renewal’.  They’re going to do something at Battle City.  I just don’t know what yet.”

“Modifications are complete, Messrs. Pegasus,” a technician announced as the workers walked away from the Runner and turned to address Yurick directly.  “Mr. Pegasus, if you simply connect a cable from your wrist Time Jumper to a port on the Time Jumper installed in the Runner, it’ll upload the Time-Space coordinates to the Runner’s Jumper.  Good luck.”

“Well Mom and Dad,” Yurick said as he released his father, “Looks like my next stop is Battle City.  I may have to talk the people at registration into letting me into the tournament, but I learned from the best, after all.”  He shot his mother a warm smile, and she returned it.  He took his seat on his Duel Runner, put on his helmet, which resembled Cyber Splicer’s head with a visor in place of the face, and hooked up the Jumper on his wrist to the one installed in his Runner.  “Well, here goes,” Yurick said.  “Battle City, here I come!”

Yurick pressed the Jump button on the Runner’s Time Jumper console, and he and the Runner vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

 “What do you mean, the tournament rules have changed?” Seto Kaiba exclaimed, one foot inside his chopper, the other still on the ground.

“We don’t know how, sir, but the rules of the Battle City tournament were rewritten an hour ago!” a Kaiba Corp. employee explained hurriedly.  “There are no signs of hacking or viruses, but certain rules of the tournament were altered.  It’s as if the main systems malfunctioned and altered the rule files, but the systems appear fine!”

“What changed?” Seto demanded.  “I’m supposed to announce the Battle City tournament in five minutes!”

“The rules for the finals changed, sir,” the man replied.  “Now the finals are for the first sixteen duelists to obtain six locator cards instead of the first eight.  Little else has changed.  The finals now will end up having four rounds instead of three.  Every time we try to return the data back to the original rules of the first eight duelists, the files won’t allow us to alter them.  They’ve become read-only files, sir.”

“Well, I’ll just have to accept these changes, then,” Kaiba said simply.  “We’ll need more room on the blimp to accommodate sixteen finalists, but other than that, things should be fine.  Changing it to sixteen won’t hurt us in the long run.  I’ll still win in the end.  Leave it as is.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Kaiba,” the man replied as the President and CEO of Kaiba Corp. entered his helicopter.  The door closed, and the chopper took to the skies.

* * *

As the light faded, Yurick found himself in Domino City, seconds before Seto Kaiba would begin his announcement of the Battle City tournament.  It looked like he’d arrived in the nick of time.

The displays on the nearby buildings all lit up to show an image of Seto Kaiba’s face as he began his speech.

“Greetings, duelists,” he began.  “Welcome to the town of Domino.  But more importantly, welcome to my tournament.  I see you each received your private invite to Kaiba Corp.’s very exclusive Duel Monsters tournament, and you had enough brains to show up here tonight.”

The gathered crowd started to grow upset with Kaiba’s barely-subtle insult, but Yurick ignored it and continued paying attention.  Suddenly, a folded-up letter appeared in front of him with an attached stickie note that read:

> _Hey, Ricky!_
> 
> _Glad you could make it!  You’ll need one of these to participate.  If you do well enough, maybe you’ll actually get to face me this time!  Don’t forget to thank me for teleporting this to you!_
> 
> _Also, don’t forget to take off your personal Duel Disk before showing up for registration.  It could raise suspicions.  Your Disk was upgraded to be able to scan and copy the ID of another Disk, so after you get one of those outdated hunks of junk from registration, just scan it with your own Disk and get rid of the relic they give you._
> 
> _Have fun!  I know the gang and I sure will!_
> 
> _With love,_
> 
> _Lizzie_

After he finished speed reading the note from Elizabeth, Yurick looked around and saw his sister and her gang hanging out about two blocks away.  Her hot pink hair made her stick out, as did the large collection of Duel Runners.  She saw him looking her way and waved.

Yurick sighed and returned to paying attention to the speech.

“Being that you are all elite duelists,” Kaiba continued, “I added some extra rules to my tournament, just for experts.  For example, you will duel using these new improved Duel Disks.”  The image shifted down to show Kaiba’s arm, which had a KC Mass Production Disk on it, before shifting the view again to show Kaiba’s upper body so both the Disk and his face could take up the same image.

“Another new rule that I designed for the tournament,” Kaiba added, “Is that before each duel, both players must ante up their rarest card, and the loser of the duel forfeits his card to the winner.  My competition will make Pegasus and his Duelist Kingdom tournament look like a joke.”

Wind started to blow through the area, followed by the sound of spinning helicopter blades, and everyone looked up to see the man himself looking down at them from his helicopter.

After raising his hand and pointing up dramatically, Kaiba finished with, “Don’t forget to register and pick up your Duel Disk, because exactly one week from today, my Battle City tournament begins!”

As the chopper left, Yurick noticed his sister and her gang leaving the area on their Runners, and almost did the same, but when his eyes fell on the Domino City museum, he felt something pulling at him, calling him to the museum.

After pulling to the side of the road to park, Yurick headed inside the Museum, confident that no one would steal his Runner, for it had security measures beyond the technology of the current era to prevent thefts.  If it was theft-proof in his time period, it’d be theft-proof in this one, too.

Shortly after entering the museum, Yurick was approached by a woman with dark hair and clothed entirely in an off white outfit that covered all but her neck and face.  She also wore a necklace with the same eye-shaped symbol that was on Maximillion’s Millennium Eye.

“I’ve been waiting for you, traveller,” the woman said, getting Yurick’s attention.

“How do you know about me?” Yurick inquired.  The idea that someone from the past would know him on sight was preposterous!

“My Millennium Necklace has shown me a great many things,” the woman replied.  “Including your quest to stop your sister from destroying the fabric of time and space in her insanity.  You are from the future, you are Yurick Connor Pegasus, and you are attempting to stop your twin sister, Elizabeth Scarlett Pegasus, from changing history.”

“Your necklace told you all that?” Yurick asked in amazement.

“All that and more,” the woman replied.  “My name is Ishizu Ishtar.  I can tell you how to undo all the changes your sister has already made, and any changes she may make after this before you can stop her.”

“How can I fix history and restore her sanity?” Yurick demanded.  “I want the Lizzie I grew up with back!”

“Time is in flux, so some things are far from clear,” Ishizu explained.  “But you must defeat her.  But merely defeating her is not enough.  After defeating her, you have to appeal to her, attempt to make a connection with her that will help her recall everything.  Each time you fail to get through to her, she will flee to another point in time.  But the sister you love is still somewhere in there.  Help her to free herself, and the powers of the Millennium Eye she inherited will be gone, and history will revert to its original state.  Her insanity will break, anyone who travels with you will return to the time they came from, but they will still remember their adventures with you.  If you fail entirely, time and space will unravel, and everything will cease to exist.”

“I understand,” Yurick replied with a nod.  “I’ll be sure to stop her.”

“Thank you,” Ishizu said with a smile.  “Now, I’ve arranged for a hotel room for you.”  She tossed him a hotel room card key and a wad of bills, which he caught.  “The hotel has been pre-paid to let you use the room on the card for the duration of the tournament.  That money will help you provide for yourself when it comes to food and other necessities.  Good luck, Yurick Pegasus.”

“I won’t let you down,”  Yurick assured her as he turned to leave.  “I’ll get through to my sister.  Wait and see.”

* * *

The hotel staff gave Yurick no trouble as he was shown to his room.  After using his card key, he entered the room, locked the door behind him and proceeded straight to the shower.

Once his shower was done, he ordered some room service so he could eat something.

Once he finished eating, Yurick went to bed so he’d be well-rested for the next day.  The day he’d find a way to register for the tournament.  Invitation or not, the fact still remained that he was from the future and there would be no record of him at all.

But he could worry about such things after getting a good night’s sleep, so Yurick decided to just catch some z’s and save the worrying for the morning.

* * *

After waking up the next day, Yurick took another shower, got dressed, ate a complimentary breakfast provided by the hotel, brushed his teeth, grabbed his helmet and Duel Disk, then left the hotel, riding his Duel Runner through the streets to the registration office.

He arrived to see the unmistakable Yugi Muto, the King of Games himself, leaving the building with his group of friends.  After leaving his Duel Disk with his Runner and entering the building, Yurick greeted the man at the desk.

“Hey. there!  I’m here to register for the Battle City tournament!” Yurick said with a wave, trying to act natural.  “I’ve got my invite right here.”

Yurick pulled out his invitation that he suspected was forged by his sister and showed it to the man.

“For security’s sake, what is your name, young man?” the man inquired.  “I’ve only got one Duel Disk left, and I wouldn’t want to give it to someone trying to fake their way into the tournament.”

Yurick gulped and took a deep breath before replying, “My name’s Yurick Pegasus.”

“Let’s see…” the man muttered as he typed.  “Yurick Pegasus…”

Yurick was sweating bullets as he started to panic.  What if he wasn’t in the database?  He probably wasn’t there.  After all, he hadn’t been born yet!  What would he say?

“Ah, here we are!” the man declared, eliciting a sigh of relief from Yurick.  “You have five stars.  Congratulations!  You qualify, and the last Duel Disk I have in stock is yours.”

The man handed over a box, and Yurick took it.  After waving goodbye to the man at the desk, Yurick left the building and found Yugi and his group of friends examining his Duel Runner.  The one with the brown hair styled with a single upward spike in front was especially intrigued.

“That's one sweet bike,” the brown-haired young man said.  “I wonder who it belongs to?”

“That would be me,” Yurick said as he approached the group.  “I take it you like my ride?  The Bionic Blur is one of a kind.  Custom designed for yours truly.”

“And just who the heck are ya?” the blonde young man asked.  “Ya gotta be rich ta afford something like dis!”

“The name’s Yurick Pegasus,” Yurick replied, ignoring the shocked faces on every member of the group.  “Yes, I’m a relative of Maximillion Pegasus, but I assure you, I’m a friend.  Now, if you’ll allow me just a moment…”

Yurick opened the box containing the KC Mass Production Disk and placed it on the Runner’s seat.  Next, he put on his Splicer Arm Disk, held it close to the Disk he’d just received, and pushed a hidden button on the bottom.

The words, “Scanning, please wait…” appeared on the Life Point counter and after a few seconds, his personal Disk beeped to announce that the ID duplication was a success.

“What did he just do?” the lone girl in the group asked.

“I just replicated the ID of this boring, mass produced Duel Disk into my custom model,” Yurick explained.  “Now I can duel with _my_ Duel Disk, which I am _much_ more comfortable using.”

“Well, you seem friendly enough,” Yugi said with a nod.  “I’m Yugi Moto.”

“I’m Joey Wheeler!” the blonde one exclaimed.  “Pleasure ta meet ya, pal!”

“I’m Tristan Taylor,” the boy with the single-spiked hair added.

“And I’m Tea Gardner,” the girl finished.  “Maybe we’ll see you around sometime!”

“Given that I’m competing as well, maybe so,” Yurick chuckled.  “Well, I’ve gotta get back to the hotel I’m staying at.  I’ve gotta study up on the competition and plan my strategies around them.”

Yurick climbed on his Runner, stored the outdated Disk in a storage compartment, and bid the group farewell before taking off for the hotel to do some planning.


End file.
